Morning briefing

What's on today's menu in Athens

Wednesday, day five of the Athens Olympiad, promises to be a busy one out on the water...assuming that the breeze fills in. Wind conditions are expected to be decidedly light once again with the wind picking up to all of 6 knots from the SSW by lunchtime. The sea breeze may build, but the forecast says otherwise with the wind going left to the SSE later in the afternoon.

Following yesterday's lack of wind on some courses racing is planned for all but two of the Olympic sailing disciplines today (the Star and Tornado don't get going until this weekend). Three races are scheduled for the 49ers (as usual) but also for the Mistral Men who to date have only have one race in the bag following race one on Sunday being thrown out. All other classes - the 470s, Europe, Finn, Laser and Yngling have two races except for the Mistral Women who have one.

In the Europe class there was disaster for Norwegian sailor Siren Sundby. Despite posting a fifth place and a first taking her clearly into the lead, she was subsequently protested for a starting infringement in the first race yesterday. The protest under RRS 20 was upheld by the jury and Sundby was disqualified from the race. Fortunately her scoreline is so immaculate that even with the extra 20 points the young Norwegian is still within three points of new leader, Sarah Blanck from Australia. Sundby's disqualification has compacted the results at the top end of the Europe where China's Shen Xiaoying has risen to a fifth place following her third and second place finishes yesterday, clearly enjoying the light conditions. Sari Multala, Italy's Larissa Nevierov and France's Blandine Rouille also seemed to perform consistently in the light yesterday. Team GBR's Laura Baldwin also enjoys these conditions and hopefully today will not find herself being run into the pin as happened in the second race yesterday.

In the Laser class racing on the same course there seemed to be not such consistency and all the competitors now have at least one result in double figures. The exception of course is Brazilian Robert Scheidt, well on his way to his third Olympic Laser medal with just 15 points compared to second placed Philippe Bergmans from Belgium on 32. After a shocker in the first race yesterday, team GBR's Paul Goodison is in ninth place, but just eight points away from the podium, however in between lie the highly potent Mark Mendelblatt and Michael Blackburn.

In the 470 Men Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield are clinging on to their lead following a disappointing 17th place in the first race yesterday. This left them just two points ahead of American duo Paul Foerster and Kevin Burnham and this was further compacted to just one point following a successful protest against Danish sailors Kristian Kjaergaard and Mads Hansen for failing to keep clear at a mark that resulted in them being disqualified from the first race yesterday. The Danish sailors had finished sixth in that race.

“We are now halfway through the regatta and still winning but we have no more discards left and therefore no messing about," commented Nick Rogers yesterday. "We had a bit of luck today when the race that we were over the start line in was abandoned, but we will now have to keep pushing all the way to the finish and the final race.”

There is proving to be little more consistency in the 470 Women's class where only one team still have a single digit scoreline - the French duo of Ingrid Petitjean and Nadege Douroux. However the runaway leaders in this class remain the local Greek team of Sofia Bekatorou and Emilia Tsoulfa. After a good day yesterday team GBR's Christina Bassadone and Katherine Hopson have moved up to sixth place, just seven points adrift of the chocolates.

With just one race sailed it is too early to guage much from the 49er class where Norway's Christoffer Sundby (brother of Siren) and Frode Bovim are leading with favourites Iker Martinez and Xavier Fernandez holding third while Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks are in ninth.

To see yesterday's results (now up to date following protests...) click here